The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-01-20
HE INTERSTATE COMMERCE
RILT,


In addition 20 my letter of Saturday
morning and with the design to locally
agltate and elicit discussion of this i'm
portant measure, l ask your further cour-
tesy to say that while the action of the
Montgomery board of trade in endorsing
the opposition of Senator Morgan to the
interstate commerce bill is to be regretted,
it is source of qualification to those who
look with interest to the practical results
which may come to Mobile from its pas
sage, to note the recent favorable action
of the New York chamber of commerce
and the speeches of Messrs. Beck and
Cullom delivered in the United States
senate yesterday advocating its passage.
These distinguished senators well met the
argument in its deeper and broader light
as involving questions of constitutional
law and public policy. They both fully
answered Morgan and Platt, and the
champions of the railroad magnates in
their hostility to legislation so manifestly
designed to check the rapid development
of their vaulting autocracy. 1t is left
for us to consider the measure
in its local aspect. 1t is not neces-
sary that we discuss objections
to its minor features. To admit that they
exist, and especially in respect to the ex-
traordinary powers proposed to be con
ferred upon the railroad mmissioners,
is but to point out what we always find in
new and radical changes in existing laws,
and what congress may easily remedy.
What most concerns us is the non -discrim-
mating tariff rates proposed to be i'm
posed by law upon the common carriers
of the country. Mr.. Reagan, the author
of the bill, has long since stood foremost
in congress as master of the question of
the country's commerce. And with his
great learning on the laws of trade, he has
been alike noted for loyalty to the state
he so ably reprerents. To him is largely
due the immense appropriations made to
Texas harbors, and he we'll considered the
legitimate results which would flow to
Texan ports from stopping the great
tide of Texan commerce drawn from
them by nominal through rates of compet-
ing lines of railroad. The same 'coudiIiou
of things which would apply to Galveston
viii apply to Mobile and other southern
and northern ports. And the trade cen
ters so long monopolized by few would
be distributed all over the country.
Mobile could but recover her 100000
bsios Of cotton If not more In ad-
dition To this she would import directly
oyefy article OF foreign consumption used
within the territory OF her trade, because
neither the cotton nor the imports which
go from or come into our territory, could
begin to pay the non discriminating rail
road tariffs from the distant entry ports
of the east. Senator Reagan, in his bill,
foresaw that it was time for us to stop
paying our lifelong tribute to those dis
tant centres of trade. The bill promises
us trade centres of our own, and the
question which addresses itself to us is,
shall we lend our voice to their rejection?
The transportation of iron and coal
from Alabama need not concern us. The
waterways of the state, connected by
rail at cheap local rates, are more than
equal to the demands of these growing
industries. 1t might be argued that it
were better for the future of our state, if
the facilities for shipping at low rates
the raw material of both coal and cotton,
were more restricted than they are.
Why carry these products at low rates to
enrich other communities and countries
in their manufacture? In conversation
Iast summer with an intelligent capitalist
at Birmingham, in answer to the writer's
inquiry for the practical foundation of
the fabulous hopes of that young city,
the answer came: "We can to-day man
ufacture anything made of iron from q
fish hook to a steam engine, twenty
five per cent. cheaper than any
where else on this continent" l replied
that "South Alabama possesses the same
element of advantage in its product of
cotton" And the time will surely come,
when with the two great products of iron
and cotton, (the manufacture and mould
ing of which is made to enrich millions of
people, thousands of miles away) Ala
bama may so handle the Two as to be-
come the richest land on earth. Con-
gressman Reagan's interstate commerce
bill, the master production of deep and
practical thought, foreshadows, however
dimly, the coming of that day. Let us
not impede it, for it promises only good
to the state and toiMobile. My only OBJ
ject in these short letters, Mr.. Editor,
commenced not until Gen. Morgan had
proclaimed his opposition to the measure
in his speech in the senate on last Thurs
day, has been, at the risk of personal crit
icism, to call the attention of our people
to matter in which, on investigation, /
think they will concur that Gen. Morgan
has prematurely committed himself on
the wrong side, against the work of
southern statesman, designed to build up
the ports of the south, by making them
trade centres for the respective sections
of the country which surround them.
JEo. r. ToMPKINs.
From the Mobile, (Ala.,) Register.